Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for enabling a dynamic hospitality contact center (DHCC) that leverages the assets of a hospitality center's communications systems including internal telecommunications networks, information systems, data networks, and applications, of public telecommunications networks, of public data networks, and/or of various communications devices to facilitate improved access, sharing, notification, and/or management of incoming calls and associated data.

Abstract: An automatic call distributor (ACD) system, which includes an object-oriented system for defining one or more call treatments is provided. The system includes a first graphical user interface including a plurality of data record fields, which define data applicable to handling an incoming call. Also included is a second graphical user interface, which is configured to accept one or more tests based on the data included in the data record fields applicable to the handling of an incoming call. The first and second graphical user interfaces include a plurality of icons and data entry fields, which are manipulated by a system user to create and modify a call treatment. Once created, call treatments are displayed in a graphical format on a third graphical user interface, which allows one or more portions of a displayed call treatment to be altered by selecting the graphical representation of the relevant portion using a computer mouse or other point and click device.

Abstract: A call center includes functionality for dynamically varying a threshold value associated with each of a number of different call types (i.e., skills) to be handled by the call center. A group of agents and a group of reserve agents are provided within the call center for use in handling incoming calls. A dedicated subgroup of agents is assigned to service each of the call types in the call center. In addition, one or more reserve agents are assigned to service a particular call type when an expected wait time associated with the call type exceeds a threshold value. The threshold value associated with each call type is dynamically adjusted during call center operation based on a measured service level being provided to a corresponding call type. In one embodiment, the threshold value for a call type is adjusted based on a comparison between a measured service level and a predetermined service level target associated with the call type.

Abstract: A call center includes functionality for dynamically varying a threshold value associated with each of a number of different call types (i.e. skills) to be handled by the call center. A group of agents and a group of reserve agents are provided within the call center for use in handling incoming calls. A dedicated subgroup of agents is assigned to service each of the call types in the call center. In addition, one or more reserve agents are assigned to service a particular call type when an expected wait time associated with the call type exceeds a threshold value. The threshold value associated with each call type is dynamically adjusted during call center operation based on the fraction of the target service level for a call type being achieved by the call center. In one embodiment, a dynamically adjusted threshold is calculated by multiplying an administered threshold value for a call type by the fraction of the target service level that a measured service level for the call type represents.

Abstract: A call center handles TTY calls for the hearing and speech impaired. The call center includes a modem bank housing multiple modems. Each modem in the modem bank is connected to a switching system and a network. Terminals for handling the calls are also connected to the network. A call controller is connected to the network and to the switching system. When a call is received by the switching system, call information is transmitted to the call controller by the switching system. The call is then extended by the switch to a modem in a modem pool. The modem bank controller then requests the identity of an available terminal to handle the call from the call controller. The call controller determines which of terminals is available to handle the incoming call. The identity of the selected terminal is transmitted to the modem bank controller. The modem bank controller commands the modem receiving the call to then transmit data received to the selected terminal.

Abstract: A novel method and apparatus which in one embodiment provides for prioritizing and presenting calls routed from callers through a communication network to an agent station having an associated agent, where the calls are based on voice-dialog communication and/or text-dialog communication. The method includes the steps of receiving a call from the communication network, determining a contact evaluation parameter associated with the call, and applying one or more selected business rules to the contact evaluation parameter to generate a priority value corresponding to the call. The call is assigned the priority value and is routed to a selected agent station. The call is displayed with an indication of its assigned priority value so that the agent may service the calls in priority order.

Abstract: A method and apparatus provides data to an agent station associated with a transaction processing system. The data corresponds to an incoming call routed from a caller through a communication network to the agent station, where the incoming calls are based on voice-mode communication and/or text-mode communication. The method includes the steps of receiving the incoming call from the communication network, obtaining caller-specific data corresponding to the incoming call, inspecting the caller-specific data to determine a specialty type corresponding to the incoming call, selecting an selected agent station based upon the determined specialty type and routing the incoming call to the selected agent station, transmitting the caller-specific data to the selected agent station, and automatically launching or maximizing an application on the selected agent station so that the application and corresponding call-specific data is available to the agent when the agent services the incoming call.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for processing and collecting, at a telephone network central office, information for a call directed to a call center prior to the call being received at the call center. A call is received for processing at a telephone network central office that is local to the call origination location. At the central office, a determination is made as to whether the destination number of the call is identified in a selected database. In response to the call destination number being identified in the selected database, the central office solicits the caller to provide requested information. An indication of the requested information received from the caller is included in a data packet associated with the telephone call before the call is transferred from the central office. The call, including the indication of the requested information, is routed to the call center.

Abstract: A method for handling a customer call in a customer relationship management system can include, responsive to receiving a telephone call from a caller, receiving caller biometric information via the telephone call which uniquely identifies the caller. The caller biometric information can be compared with biometric information profiles to determine an identity of the caller. The telephone call can be transferred to a telephone number according to the identity of the caller.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products are provided which automatically distribute tasks associated with a telephone system and tasks associated with a computer system between a plurality of agents tracking ACD telephone status of the plurality of agents and tracking computer status of the plurality of agents. When a request for a computer task is received, an agent of the plurality of agents is assigned to the computer task corresponding to the received request based on the ACD telephone status and the computer status of the agent of the plurality of agents.

Abstract: A system and method for a personalized directory assistance system are provided. The system allows a user to speak with a customer service representative (CSR) by dialing an easy to remember telephone number on their phone. Specialized telephony equipment routes the call. to the customer service representative and the user's personal contact list made available to the (CSR). The CSR searches the user's personal contact list in accordance with the user's request. The CSR's terminal generates a call completion string and sends it to the telephony equipment using an out-of-band signaling network for release link transfer switching. The user's personal contact list can be populated by the user via a web browser, by interacting with the CSR, by synchronizing a personal information manager or personal digital assistant database or by sending a facsimile or the service provider.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method of transferring a call signal including call-related data received from a communications system between a host and at least one remote agent terminal connected through a network, where the host can access at least one application database for storing and retrieving information associated with each service that each agent terminal is to handle, and each agent terminal can access the at least one application database computer system for storing and retrieving information associated with each service that each agent terminal is to handle, the method comprising the steps of: (a) at the host (i) transferring initial information contained in an ANI field associated with the call signal into the at least one application database, (ii) associating that initial information contained in the ANI field with other information regarding the source of the call signal, and (iii) replacing the initial information contained in the ANI field associated with the call signal with

Abstract: A system for providing services in a communications network includes a service processing function, a universal directory function, and a nodal resource manager. The service processing function receives service requests, formulates requests for interworking functions based upon service requests, and formulates resource requests based upon service requests and interworking functions. The universal directory function receives addresses from the service processing function and returns interworking functions based upon addresses. The nodal resource manager receives resource requests and allocates resources to the service processing function in response to resource requests. The nodal resource manager maintains a resource database that includes an entry corresponding to each network resource managed by the nodal resource manager.

Abstract: A method for finding a contact within a first group who is linked to a communications partner in a second group. For this, desired properties of the desired communications partner in the second group are entered into a communication agent, and the communication agent transmits inquiries to communication agents of persons in the first group. Information regarding a contact found in the first group is output via a man/machine interface.

Abstract: Data on customer's purchase history stored in a database server is searched and edited by using an ID number inputted by a customer. A customer class, a customer rank, a discount rate, and the like are displayed on a personal computer of an operator who responds to the customer that calls a call center.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a customer contact 100 in which a session monitor 140 identifies and implements multi-customer sessions. A conferencing function 136 connects the plurality of customers 110-118 simultaneously to the same resource and/or to each other. Participation in the sessions can be mandatory or optional. The sessions can be created continually or periodically, such as when the contact center 100 is in an session mode. The sessions can be closed or open to new customers after commencement.

Abstract: A method of distributing telephone calls to provide users of extensions and/or terminals of a telecommunications network with access to a service provided by an agent includes the steps of determining agent profiles, determining a call profile, comparing the call profile to the agent profiles to constitute an ordered list of agents qualified to process a call, and distributing a call to agents from the list of agents.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for dynamically reassigning agents among call types in a call distribution system having a plurality of agents assigned to a plurality of call types. The method includes the steps of detecting a deficiency in agent responsibility assigned to a call type of the plurality of call types based upon a measured service parameter and corresponding target service parameter and determining an agent allocation among the plurality of call types best suited to correct the deficiency.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for distributing customer contacts to a transaction processing entity of a transaction processing system. The method includes determining a media type for a customer contact in the transaction processing system and finding a transaction processing entity that is capable of handling the media type. In addition, the method includes routing the customer contact to a transaction processing entity that is capable of handling the media type. In one embodiment, a transaction routing table is used to perform the distribution of customer contacts. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b).

Abstract: A novel communication distribution system is provided. In one form, an automatic communication distributor manages multiple queues of calls waiting to be handled by agents. When a call is transferred to an agent's workstation, the workstation provides different ringing signals to the agent based on the automatic communication distributor queue from which the call is coming. In another form, a computer-readable medium is encoded with programming instructions that are executable by a processor to differentiate between calls coming from different ACD queues, and to provide different ringing signals to a user based on that differentiation.

Abstract: The system for automatically routing calls to call center agents provides the call center administrator with an automatic agent assignment paradigm which functions to automatically increase the efficiency of assigning multiple skill agents to contacts. The presence of an agent surplus condition provides the present system with a plurality of choices in the assignment of the agent to process a presently received contact. Since the agents who staff the call center include multiple skill agents, the system must make a determination of not only which of the available agents is the best equipped to handle the present contact, but also how that assignment statistically effects the efficiency of successive assignments of agents to contacts next received, based upon the past performance of the agents and the call center.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for processing multi-media telecommunication transactions by a call processing center. The method includes the steps of detecting a call of the multi-media telecommunication transactions by a host computer of the call processing center and transferring a transaction request from the host to a call processor for assignment of an agent to the call. The method further includes the steps of transferring an identifier of the assigned agent from the call processor to the host and transferring the call received from the host to the assigned agent.

Abstract: Resolution of contention over resources (102-105) in an automatic call distribution (ACD) system (101). Call (201) attributes (202) and resource (221) attributes (222) are defined (140,130). Rules (211) match calls' attributes with resources' attributes, Rules have priorities (212) comprising an initial value (213) and a function (214) that changes the value over time. Rules preferably define call coverage paths (215). Each resource has its own call queue (121-129). Rules are matched (230) to arriving call's attributes, to determine (240) resources that can handle the call. A token (250) for every matching rule is placed in the queues of all resources that can handle the call, at a position determined by the rule's priority. The priority and queue position changes over time according to the rule's time function. When a resource dequeues the call's token to process the call, tokens for the call are removed from all queues.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed that generates a message in response to an inquiry. The present invention generates such a message by applying the inquiry to a data table contained within a receiving device, wherein a call identifier is associated with the inquiry. An agent is then selected from an agent group corresponding to the call identifier. The call identifier is then supplied to an interface message device, wherein an agent message associated with the selected agent is chosen from an agent message database based upon the call identifier. The agent message is then supplied to the source of the inquiry.

Abstract: In a disclosed ACD skill-based routing system and method, a group of call agents is established and one or more screening attributes are assigned to each call agent group member. A call agent queue is established that ranks available call agent group members according to an idleness indicator. The call agent group is assigned to at least one call queue that ranks calls according to a priority indicator. Each call in the call queue(s) is associated with one or more call requirement attributes. To assign a call to an agent, a comparison is made of the screening attribute(s) of the highest ranking call agent in the call agent queue with the call requirement attribute(s) of one or more calls in the call queue(s), beginning with the highest ranking call and descending through lower ranking calls as necessary until a call having a call requirement attribute matching one of the highest ranking call agent's screening attributes (call-to-agent match) is found.

Abstract: A system and method for a personalized directory assistance system are provided. The system allows a user to speak with a Cutter service representative (CSR) by dialing an easy to remember telephone number on their phone. Specialized telephony equipment routes the call to the customer service representative and the user's personal contact list made available to the (CSR). The CSR searches the user's personal contact list in accordance with the user's request. The CSR's terminal generates a call completion string and sends it to the telephony equipment using an out-of-band signaling network for release link transfer switching. The user's personal contact list can be populated by the user via a web browser, by interacting with the CSR, by synchronizing a personal information manager or personal digital assistant database or by sending a facsimile or electronic mail request to the service provider.

Abstract: A telecommunications method and system for providing and monitoring multiple classes of service to users seeking dial-up access to a given resource. Incoming calls from two user groups, one group subscribing to a first service level and the other group subscribing to a second service level, are initially assigned to open circuits in a first shared dial hunt group. When all circuits are busy, only calls from users subscribing to the second service level are routed to open circuits in a second dedicated dial hunt group so that second level service subscribers will have fewer calls blocked than first level service subscribers. In an alternative implementation, calls from users subscribing to a first service level are routed only to open circuits in a first dial hunt group and calls from users subscribing to a second service level are routed initially to open circuits in a second dial hunt group.

Abstract: The system for automatically routing calls to call center agents in an agent surplus condition provides the call center administrator with an automatic agent assignment paradigm which functions to automatically increase the efficiency of assigning multiple skill agents to contacts. The presence of an agent surplus condition provides the present system with a plurality of choices in the assignment of the agent to process a presently received contact. Since the agents who staff the call center include multiple skill agents, the system must make a determination of not only which of the available agents is the best equipped to handle the present contact, but also how that assignment statistically effects the efficiency of successive assignments of agents to contacts next received, based upon the past performance of the agents and the call center.

Abstract: A service system provides substantially zero delay service and dynamically adjusts resources required to provide the service. According to an embodiment of the present invention, future staffing requirements of the service system are predicted by determining, of a number of customers currently in service, how many will remain in service at a predetermined future time and how many customers to arrive to the system in the future can be expected to remain in service at the predetermined future time. For customers in service, customers may be classified according to one or more attributes known for the customer. The attributes may be helpful to identify a type of service being provided to the customer and determine a remaining service time for the customer. Thus, the customer attributes may provide for more accurate staffing predictions than in the prior art.

Abstract: A communications handling center in which agents are assigned to handling queues for handling incoming communications, and handling attributes are assigned to the agents, is disclosed. The center forwards incoming communications, such as telephone calls, by determining handling requirements, including an appropriate handling queue and required agent attributes. An available agent within a queue is first located, and then an assessment is made whether that agent possesses required attributes in order to handle the communication. If so, the call is forwarded to the located agent. Preferably, the assigned agent attributes are relevant to all queues to which the agent may be assigned, allowing for the easy administration of the communications handling center, by reducing the number of queues that must be maintained.